The Boys has quickly become one of the most popular and adored current OTT series, offering a fresh take on the superhero trope that was desperately needed in a diluted genre replete with some of the most monotonous and safe plotlines. The show’s cast of characters is what makes it so enjoyable, and when discussing this cast, one cannot overlook the mystery that is Frenchie.
He is probably one of The Boys’ most eccentric members, yet with the addition of Kimiko to the group, he becomes a little more grounded. Frenchie is one of the most intriguing characters in the show; his background and relationships are like the layers of an onion; the longer we watch the show, the more we learn about him.
His impactful presence in the Boys
Frenchie, whose actual name is Serge, is one of the three protagonists of the Amazon series The Boys, along with Mother’s Milk and The Female, and a member of the vigilante organization The Boys. Despite his nickname, he is actually French-Algerian. Frenchie’s talents as a drug-dabbling, gunrunning jack-of-all-trades are a vital resource to Butcher and The Boys, but his rash actions irritate Mother’s Milk. Frenchie has a past as a hired killer, and those jobs, as well as the human faces behind them, have always lingered with him like scars.
But when he discovers a lady trapped in a cage in a basement who is part of a greater mystery, Frenchie is the only one of The Boys who can communicate with her. That lady was The Female or Kimiko Miyashiro. Frenchie’s accent in the series is so convincing that one can’t help but think that the actor playing him must be French. However, you may be surprised to learn that this is not the case. The actor that portrays Frenchie, Tomer Kapon, is really from Israel! Nobody could have foreseen this in a million years.
Serge’s childhood is unknown; however, he claims to have had a difficult upbringing. Serge alleges his father was bipolar and tried to suffocate him with a Hello Kitty duvet when he was ten years old. While residing in Marseille, his father abducted Serge from his mother in the middle of the night and kept him with himself for years, moving from hotel to hotel. He would take him on a stroll every few evenings to light a cigarette and tell him he loved him. He would, however, burn him with the same cigarettes.
Serge tried several times to escape, hopping buses and trains or doing whatever possible to go back to his mother, but he was always caught by his father. Serge arrived in New York alone, living in a homeless shelter. Serge would watch The Golden Girls on the shelter’s “shitty TV” every day from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. He believes that the show entertained him and motivated him to “start his own family.” Serge and his close friends, Cherie and Jay, would spend most of their time by 2012 either high or committing criminal heists.
He’d also make intricate weaponry to use against supes who tried to stop him during his thefts. Serge and his companions were arrested during their bank heist, where the authorities ultimately caught up with them. While Serge was in detention, he was approached by Grace Mallory, the former CIA Deputy Director and creator of The Boys, who was fascinated by Serge’s ability to create weapons and devices that negated a superhero’s power.
Mallory gave him the option of rotting in a prison cell for 25 years or coming to work for her. Mallory proposed a new offer after Serge declined her first one. She then threatened to send Cherie and Jay to ADX Florence, a supermax prison, unless Frenchie reconsidered her offer. Serge called it a bluff, but Mallory simply confirmed it wasn’t.
Now known mainly by his moniker “Frenchie,” Serge became a full-fledged member of The Boys in 2015, with Grace Mallory, Billy Butcher, and Mother’s Milk. While waiting for Lamplighter, who was a superhero, in an abandoned warehouse, Frenchie jokingly offered to assist in the planning of M.M.’s bachelor party. Lamplighter grudgingly consented, but Mallory was wary of him and requested Frenchie to follow him.
When Lamplighter arrived to meet with the Boys, everyone laughed at his attire. Mallory then blackmailed Lamplighter into acting as an informant for them and feeding them information on The Seven. Following Lamplighter to a party, Frenchie received a call from Cherie informing him that Jay had overdosed on an unknown narcotic. Frenchie reluctantly resigned from his post to assist Jay.
Although Frenchie was successful in saving Jay, when he returned to the party, Lamplighter had vanished. Later, Frenchie discovered that Lamplighter had burnt Mallory’s grandchildren to ashes. This tragedy upset Frenchie, who felt responsible for the deaths of Mallory’s grandchildren. To make matters worse, Frenchie would never see his friend Jay again since he died from another overdose a few months later.
After The Boys split, Frenchie never informed anybody why he “allowed” Lamplighter to go, causing a deep divide in his and M.M.’s friendship. According to Mother’s Milk, Frenchie was meant to follow Lamplighter, and Mallory’s grandchildren were slaughtered since he didn’t. In an episode titled ‘You Found Me’, Grace Mallory reveals that Lamplighter murdered her grandchildren, causing her to leave the CIA.
Five years later, Billy Butcher and Hughie Campbell approach Frenchie after they kidnap a superhero named Translucent. Frenchie first acts friendly upon meeting his former colleague because he is under the impression that Butcher has come to pay him the $40,000 he owes him. Butcher makes Frenchie an offer that would quadruple his money if he helped him with a job. When Frenchie enters the trunk of Butcher’s car and discovers the invisible member of the most powerful and influential superhero group called The Seven, Translucent, he panics.
He pulls a revolver on Butcher and informs him that Translucent has been chipped and that the Seven are on their way. Butcher tells Frenchie that because Translucent has seen his face, this is his issue as much as it is theirs. Butcher then stresses that he will not go until Frenchie agrees to assist them or the Seven arrive. Frenchie reluctantly agrees to help Butcher and Hughie.
This is how Frenchie makes his re-entry into The Boys. Butcher brings back Mother’s Milk against Frenchie’s wishes after Translucent is killed by Hughie. M.M. and Frenchie both refuse to work together due to past occurrences. Still, they are able to overcome their differences while monitoring two superheroes, Popclaw and A-Train, in an Episode titled ‘Get Some.’
Frenchie, Hughie Campbell, and Mother’s Milk went to a tiny grocery shop in a caper to find smuggled Compound V, a supernatural medication that grants humans superhuman abilities. In the basement, they uncovered a secret refuge for Asian thugs. M.M. and Hughie searched through crates in a storage area for the Compound V after sneaking past the criminals. Frenchie heard loud Japanese music and found The Female in a cage, seated beneath a table, watching a Japanese television show.
Frenchie insisted on her being freed, but M.M. advised him to discover the Compound V and leave before the gangsters caught them. The act of saving this individual, Kimiko, and assisting in her recovery undoubtedly transformed Frenchie into a better person; this is what he once told M.M.
Frenchie and The Boys take refuge with the Clarkson Avenue Haitian Kings gang in Season 2. There, Frenchie handles gang business and assists the Female in learning to write in English. When one of the gang members returns with every bone in his arm fractured, Frenchie inquires about the damage. In response, he informs The Boys that the gang members were secretly smuggling a Supe-Terrorist.
Kimiko tries to tell Frenchie more about the terrorist. Still, she is unable to do so owing to her limited understanding of writing in English, leaving Frenchie perplexed as to why she continues writing the word “Boy.” Kimiko later hugs the terrorist when The Boys track him down to a costume store. Frenchie suddenly realizes the Terrorist is Kimiko’s brother, Kenji, and that he was the “boy” she had been referring to the entire time.
Later, while transporting Kenji to a rendezvous spot, Frenchie tries to bond with him by providing him with Doritos and an energy drink. Frenchie inquires about the unique sign language used by Kenji and his sister, to which Kenji responds that it was created by him and Kimiko when Kimiko became silent after their mother died. When Frenchie demands that Kenji teach him their sign language, Kenji just refuses.
Even now, in Season Three, Frenchie still goes on missions with The Boys. Cherie, an old friend, approaches him at one point, desperate for assistance in escaping Nina. Nina follows Frenchie and offers him a deal to continue working with her in exchange for turning in Cherie. Frenchie declines and continues to work with The Boys.
Despite his rough history, Frenchie is a highly sympathetic character who truly cares about the well-being of his comrades. He also proved to be the group’s most intelligent member, with the most diverse skill set. He is a multi-talented criminal with experience in a variety of illegal activities, including drug production, firearm smuggling, breaking and entering, break-ins, and lying to police.
He’s so good at the latter that he even managed to dupe Homelander. Frenchie appears to be a psychedelics lover since when Hughie is worried about keeping Translucent as a prisoner, he gives him an LSD/MDMA concoction to soothe his fears. He appears to like baking pastries and other French cuisines in his leisure time and is steady enough to instruct Kimiko.
Frenchie believes he keeps the memories of each person he has killed with him, and in one of his chats with Hughie, he expresses regret about his history as a hit man. Later, he tells Mother’s Milk that Kimiko makes him a better person, hinting that this is a part of his reason for assisting her. His friendship with Kimiko has also given him some proficiency in Japanese Sign Language.
Some things about Frenchie that only comic book readers will know
All of The Boys fight against The Seven, Vought, and the rest of the Supes, although the way they do it differs significantly between the comic and the TV program. In the latter, all members of The Boys must adhere to detailed strategies and maintain their wits if they are to survive any confrontation with The Seven. In the comics, though, all of The Boys, including Frenchie, end up taking Compound V in order to face the Supes on equal footing, which is an intriguing scenario.
In the comic series, Frenchie is known as The Frenchman and is one of the Boys’ two powerhouses, the other being The Female of the Species. He is characterized as having a great bond with both Female and Billy, yet he has killer instincts, and his aggression is difficult to control once triggered. The Frenchman’s usage of Compound V has given him skills similar to Female of the Species, such as heightened strength, scent, and durability. Frenchie was born in a tiny Pyrenean village that spoke its own distinct dialect of French.
When he returned after an unnamed battle, he learned that his boyhood adversary, Black Pierre, had stolen his sweetheart. Frenchie’s parents encouraged him to participate against Black Pierre in the upcoming festival, where competitors joust on bicycles with baguettes to settle disagreements. Because Frenchie had evolved a pacifist attitude on life as a result of the war, his father chose to joust against Black Pierre instead to maintain the family honor. However, Black Pierre played dirty by cramming a croissant into the tire of Frenchie’s father’s bicycle.
Frenchie’s father was killed in the ensuing collision, and his mother died of sadness a short time afterward. Frenchie killed Black Pierre in retaliation for his parents’ deaths and fled the community. About a year later, Butcher hired him. Frenchie has a close bond with the Female and tries to keep her violent instincts in check. Both are killed by a bomb detonated by Butcher near the end of the series. Frenchie declares his love for the Female shortly before the bomb explodes.
In the comics, a significant narrative takes place in Russia, where The Boys visit to figure out why so many Supes were losing their heads in an explosive way. Butcher suspects that an unstable version of Compound V is to blame. They meet Butcher’s buddy and former superhero Vasili Vorishikin, a.k.a. Love Sausage, in Moscow and begin their inquiry. They quickly begin to suspect that they are being followed or watched, and Frenchie is even able to apprehend the men who have been tailing them. That’s when Butcher knows they’re being pursued by Nina Kamenko, a Russian mafia leader.
As of now, no member of The Boys has lost a limb on the program. Because of the nature of their profession, they’ve been dangerously near, but they’ve all managed to keep all of their arms and legs. However, in comic #63, Frenchie loses his right arm in combat due to a sequence of terrible events. And the only reason he is still alive is due to medical therapy devised by Vought-American. Following that, he accepts the loss of a limb and completes his suit with a Napoleonic cap.
In the comics, Frenchie’s lunacy is carried to a whole new level, to the point that everyone believes he’s simply a crazy British person trying to be French because he’s so paranoid. In the TV program, Frenchie may appear slightly insane, but there is no doubt that he is sane for the most part.
Despite his frequent harshness, The Frenchman is a compassionate and devoted friend who has spent a lot of time trying to assist his closest friend, The Female, deal with her mental difficulties. He seems to be relatively quiet and timid until aroused, and once inflamed, his fury can be challenging to control, giving way to vicious violence and fierce cruelty against his adversaries or anybody who could want to humiliate or offend him.
What makes Frenchie so deadly?
Butcher called Frenchie a “top guy,” and he claimed to “know a little about a lot of stuff,” including but not limited to chemistry and engineering. He is a gunrunner by trade, but he has specialized in incapacitating superheroes; when Butcher approached him for assistance in murdering Translucent, he first covered a bullet in the same carbon metamaterial as the superhero’s skin, and when that failed, he placed a plastic bomb inside Translucent. Grace Mallory hired him for his inventiveness when he developed a benzo bomb to knock out Behemoth during a robbery.
He also offered Hughie an LSD/MDMA tablet to help with his nervousness and anxiety. Frenchie is a brilliant thief and detective who can pick a lock with anything; he utilizes the premium metal wire in Hughie’s retainer to get free from their captivity. He picked another lock so that the Boys could break into a business. Frenchie is also a skilled cook.
He also speaks numerous languages, including English, his native French, and a sign language variety he uses with Kimiko, which he appears to have mastered a year later. Frenchie is quite well acquainted with firearms as a gunrunner, and he has even dual-wielded pistols against a superhero dubbed Stormfront. Frenchie is also a fighter, having gone toe-to-toe with Mother’s Milk once during the program. He is also skilled with a knife. Frenchie is also a master of stealth. He once sneaked inside a building that housed The Female.
In the comic series, he is considered the muscle of The Boys team, alongside his best friend, The Female. The Frenchman is superhumanly strong and highly durable, which aids his brutal ferocity and nature. In a cafe, he brutally injured a man with a headbutt and punched another man’s bottom jaw off. He later instantly knocked out a man with a knee to the face. Against a group of superheroes, he quickly lifted one off the ground.
The Frenchman was also able to slam two men’s heads together with enough force to knock out one’s eyeball and also kill some other Supes. He injured Stormfront with a baseball bat and snapped another Supe’s neck. Possibly his most remarkable feat was throwing the Female onto a flying plane. He also has a heightened sense of smell.
Conclusion
The enigma that is Frenchie will surely keep unraveling even more as the show continues, and we can’t help but wonder what this multi-faceted character has in store for us. It is also interesting how the creators of the show have taken significant creative liberties and considerably changed the character as compared to the comics, making his upcoming story arc in Season 3 all the more interesting and exciting.
The Boys has many characters that are sure to keep us hooked, and Frenchie is definitely one of them. We can only hope that he and Kimiko don’t face a tragic ending as they did in the comics and are dished with the “happily ever after’ that they deserve instead.